What started as evening jam sessions between roommates has grown into a global success, with band members Max Doohan, Sam Richards, and Iiris Vesik at the helm. With a recognisable and infectious offering of dream pop, Night Tapes is the genre-fluid project pushing the envelope for electronics, lyrics, and thematics. Drawing inspiration from real experiences as well as spiritual, metaphysical realms, they interweave the two in to a world that is all their own.

From their debut single, “Forever”, to their first two EPs, “Dream Forever In Glorious Stereo” and “Download Spirit”, the group has garnered a loyal fanbase who resonate deeply with their musicality. Now, with the release of their third EP, “Perfect Kindness”, Night Tapes is back and better than ever.

We hear from Iiris Vesik from Night Tapes about the origin of the project, the new EP, and what’s to come next.

Stream “Perfect Kindness”…

Read the interview…

Hey Night Tapes! Who am I talking to? How are you?
Hei! This is Iiris from Night Tapes. I’ve just arrived in Tallinn to see my parents/friends, to participate at the Estonian Song and Dance Festival and to refresh my soul with some short and sweet cerulean blue northern summer nights . Just arrived here from London where we had a release show with the band for our new EP at Third Man Records London. Feeling pretty pumped and slightly tired- looking forward to having some time to freeflow before resuming writing with the boys for the new EP already in the works.

How did Night Tapes come together? What is your story? What is the meaning behind the name Night Tapes?
We all lived in a house together after we finished uni in South London and we were producing music in our own rooms. We kept on hearing each other’s music from the walls and this eventually led to jam sessions together. We would mostly record music at night and we had 2 cassette recorders – 1 from Max’s childhood and the other one we got at a flea market in Tallinn. We were living with neighbours and housemates so we’d try to keep it civil. We ended up recording soft tunes on tapes at nights – hence the name night tapes.

How are each of you unique in your talents and why do you work so well together?
I’m a wizard (cancer) operating mostly in the realms of lyrics, concepts, melodies and vibe, but I can play some flute and guitar and I make drum & bass in my free time. Richie is a proper jazz guitarist (scorpio)/multi-instrumentalist who was producing house music when I met him and Max is primarily a drummer/multi-instrumentalist (libra) who produced ambient electronica when I met him.

I think it’s easier to make music with people you can talk about anything with. We were all friends before we started making music together. I want to hear the mushy vulnerable soul bits in music – I think it’s easier to reveal those bits with people you can trust. It’s also easier to communicate with people you know if anything needs to change in a song.

Who/what are the main influences to your sound?
South London has been a big influence – the vibe, the sound, the night drives, the grind, all of the bands of our friends. I come from alt pop, Max has been involved with bands from rock to jazzy stuff and Richie seems to be the most indie of us, but he has his jazz down.

Congratulations on the EP, “Perfect Kindness” – tell us about the story behind it.
We’re very happy it’s finally out! It’s a tone poem and a sonic journey. Lyrically the themes progress from illusion to meditation. Looking at it from a personal lens there is a story there of a calm time after a storm. Growing up and being comfortable with your boundaries. It’s a pretty chilled out EP.


What do you want your audience to feel when they listen to the EP?
I feel like this EP is for going out on long walks. We were pretty inspired by surf images, long walks in nature and night drives.


What was the creative process like behind creating the EP?
This EP took quite a long time to make – we kept on coming back and opening up the projects. Some songs we sneezed out like “Selene” and didn’t touch them until we had to finish them. Some songs like “Inigo” have a shit ton of alternative projects and versions of them.


Which track in the EP is the most notable to you guys and why?
Actually “Silent Song” is the one that I have been vibing to the most recently. The song itself is a collage from the years 2016-2022. It started as a piano song that I wrote with Max, then years later Richie had this beautiful and different piano loop that he made that fit under the melodies perfectly and Max found an unrelated vibey drum jam that really completed the puzzle. In some ways I feel that the song incorporates memories in recordings like time capsules from these years, which looking back – turned out to be what the lyrics of the song depict for me. It feels like a cycle has been completed with the release of this song. I wrote the lyrics first, didn’t really have a clue what they meant and then seemed to have lived them out. It’s always weird when that useless magic kinda thing happens.
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What is the rest of 2023 looking like for you guys? Next big moves?
We are very excited to go on tour in late September/early October. Doing a string of shows in the UK and in Europe!